3 Quick Fixes For All Agile Transformations

Have you ever wondered what would happen if you turned your entire approach to life, and your supporting world view, inside out and upside down?

In many ways this is what organisations are attempting to do with Agile Transformations and the craziest thing of all is that no organisation I have seen has ever known how to truly listen to itself and adapt its mindset.

Have you ever tried to make huge behaviour change in your life? Maybe it was stopping the cigarettes, knocking drinking on the head, being more present when with your loved ones, daily exercise or starting meditation…

Whatever it is, the same rules for these behaviour changes apply directly to agile transformations - AND just about ANY change that is made anywhere!

Why are these 3 quick agile transformation fixes actually fixes for any change being made anywhere? (read until the end - i have answered at the bottom)

3 Quick Fixes For All Agile Transformations:

1. Put a cork in all Finite Mindsets

In my experience working with people to create better habits for themselves and also with organisations trying to ‘transform’ the first key differentiator of success is always the way we think. Thinking finitely will make us ‘play the game’, whilst adhering to the rules, accepted behaviours and keeping to time. This mindset is what plagues most workplaces right now. Sadly, most people go to work between 9 and 5 just for the money they receive so that they can have some (mostly basic) standard of living. They do not bring their whole personalities into work, just a thin slice that they have learnt is acceptable while they play the game of work. This mindset means decision making will always be personal gain, short termism, and incentivises productivity to be based on the demands of the game at the time - you get work done just before it is due or “just in time” as the industry says.

2. Stimulate Infinite Thinking?

Contrastingly, if we consider that businesses main focus is to serve their end customers well, we have to accept that a business really then should be focused on the end to end customers journey that they create with the way they engage with their customers. If this is true, the way this customer journey can impact the lives of others becomes very tangible and meaningful. Engagement of this kind genuinely makes a difference in peoples lives. There is no end in sight to solving these problems and effective solutions require rapid experimentation. Infinite thinking accepts complexity of all kinds, does not try to solve it in one moment, and accepts that the only way to know is to try. Infinite thinking therefore requires a close connection to customer impact, an ability to deliver improvements to the customer journey rapidly, and a way of breaking down experiments so that risks are minimal and quality high.

3.?Create forums for deep listening?

Listening is a tough skill to learn, once you actually start trying to apply it. Often people are stuck in their own minds intermittently and not actually on what is being communicated. Others are more focused on the words that people speak and the most advanced listen to the tone of voice, body language, facial expressions and all subtle forms of communications that paint a holistic and integrated experience of listening. Transformations, change, and all rapid evolution requires lots of healthy feedback. The more that feedback from core customers is leveraged to refine a product, of course the better the product will be. The same is true for any personal changes you have tried to make in your life (your desired future you is the customer in this instance). With this thinking, its clear that Agile Transformation also require tons of feedback from colleagues so that the colleague experience can be adapted frequently and often along the way.?

Next Steps?

A note for implementation of these three point would be to definitely & absolutely, DO NOT do surveys of hundreds of people and do not try to shoehorn the right soundbties from your colleagues so that you look good to your boss.?

Instead, your aim should be to create genuine collaboration forums that allow local teams, that desire to impact the same customer journey, to reflect and align on at least 1 experiment that will improve the way they work together to create the outcomes that matter.

I hope this helps!

Best,

Rayyan

PS.... Q - Why are these 3 quick agile transformation fixes actually fixes for any change being made anywhere??

Answer - Because they are all “complex adaptive systems” and the way to make complex adaptive system change effectively always relies upon our THINKING, our way of creating SYSTEMS and our approach to assessing PERFORMANCE

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Rayyan is the Managing Director of Transforming Perceptions Ltd a transformation consultancy that empowers staff to design and implement organisation-wide continuous transformation.

Rayyan’s Transformation experience is available on linkedin and spans: Traditional Banks, FinTechs, Technology, Oil & Gas, Aviation and Education.

Podcast - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6Dmq-2yeEMiUqt6Ni2w89k_iGxiGhURS

Partnership Program - https://transformingperceptions.org/partnersingrowth

Personal enquiries - www.rayyankarim.com